"Finality on this constitutional issue must come from the U.S. Supreme Court," said a prepared statement from her office.

Garcia's ruling, while a victory for same-sex couples, would only clear the way for gays to marry in a single Florida county: Monroe. It is the only one over which he has jurisdiction, though an appeals-court ruling upholding his decision would legitimize same-sex marriage statewide.

Equality Florida, one of the groups leading the fight for gay marriage in Florida, planned a series of rallies in more than a dozen Florida cities, including Orlando and Fort Lauderdale on Thursday night.

A boisterous crowd of about 100 people celebrated the ruling at the Hammered Lamb, a bar north of downtown Orlando.

"We will have marriage equality in Florida," he said. "It's just a matter of time."

Greg Griffin, 52, who was at the rally, moved to Florida from Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage.

"Massachusetts is still functioning. It didn't collapse into the ocean," he said. "We're good people, and we just want what everybody else has."

On April 1, two Key West men, Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones, a couple for 11 years, applied for a marriage license at the Monroe County Clerk of Courts office and were denied.

They hired a Key Largo divorce lawyer, who sued Clerk Amy Heavilin, demanding that she issue them a marriage license.

The case was assigned to Garcia, who ruled in the couple's favor, ordering Heavilin to give them and "similarly situated same-sex couples" those licenses.

He concluded the ban violates the rights of gays and lesbians under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process and equal protection under the law.

Huntsman and Jones, he wrote, "seek to have their relationship accorded the dignity, respect and security as the relationships of other married couples in the State of Florida."

In anticipation of a possible run on the local clerk's marriage-license bureau, Garcia had ordered that his ruling not take effect until Tuesday. That became moot once Bondi filed her appeal.

One of the staunchest opponents of gay marriage in Florida, John Stemberger of Orlando, president of Florida Family Policy Council, called the ruling "entirely illegitimate."

His group led a statewide campaign in 2008 that convinced voters to make a ban on same-sex marriage part of the state constitution.

"The judge had no legal authority whatsoever to do what he did," said Stemberger. "His decision basically disrespects and disenfranchises about 5 million Florida voters who voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

It was that 2008 vote that spurred gay and lesbian activists to get organized and push back, said Mary Meeks, an Orlando lawyer involved in a similar challenge pending in Miami-Dade.

"That's when our community kind of felt gut-punched and woke up and really got engaged and started to fight," she said. "I think we've had the momentum on our side ever since."

Of the decision, said Meeks, "Obviously, we're thrilled."

Garcia heard arguments in the case July 7. Weighing on his mind, he wrote, was that 2008 election in which 62 percent of Florida voters approved a statewide ban on gay marriage.

"This court is aware that the majority of voters oppose same-sex marriage, but it is our country's proud history to protect the rights of the individual, the rights of the unpopular and the rights of the powerless, even at the cost of offending the majority," he wrote.

Bernadette Restivo is the Key Largo attorney who represents Huntsman and Jones. Asked Thursday evening whether she was prepared for a long appeal fight, she said, "We're taking this all the way. Let's go. … This is why you go to law school."

Thursday's decision is just the first of what may become a cascade of Florida court rulings on gay marriage in the coming days.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel heard arguments July 2 on the same issue — but involving six same-sex couples who live in that county and want to get married. Her ruling is expected any day.

The same is true in federal court in Tallahassee, where U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle is mulling whether to order Washington County's clerk of courts to issue a marriage license to two men and whether to require Florida to grant the same rights to same-sex couples wed in other states and Canada as to other married couples.

The American Civil Liberties Union is part of that challenge.

"This is the beginning of the end of the marriage ban and of marriage discrimination in Florida," ACLU attorney Daniel Tilley said in a prepared statement.